News of the Week (December 28th, 2014)

Obama Scandals

IRS scandal: Obama administration strategy = delay, derail, deceive
After being told repeatedly by a number of administration officials — including the IRS Commissioner — that former top IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer problems resulted in the destruction of thousands of her key emails, we have now been told that those emails actually exist – backed up by an emergency system in the event of a catastrophe.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

97 Articles Refuting The “97% Consensus” on global warming
The 97% “consensus” study, Cook et al. (2013) has been thoroughly refuted in scholarly peer-reviewed journals, by major news media, public policy organizations and think tanks, highly credentialed scientists and extensively in the climate blogosphere. The shoddy methodology of Cook’s study has been shown to be so fatally flawed that well known climate scientists have publicly spoken out against it

New Study: Two Thousand Years of Northern European Summer Temperatures Show a Downward Trend
In a paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, Esper et al. (2014) write that tree-ring chronologies of maximum latewood density (MXD) “are most suitable to reconstruct annually resolved summer temperature variations of the late Holocene.” And working with what they call “the world’s two longest MXD-based climate reconstructions” – those of Melvin et al. (2013) and Esper et al. (2012) – they combined portions of each to produce a new-and-improved summer temperature history for northern Europe that stretches all the way “from 17 BC to the present.” And what did they thereby learn?

3,000 ops cancelled as demand rises
More than 3,000 operations have been cancelled by the NHS in the first two weeks of this month as an “unprecedented demand” takes its toll.

War & Terror

Military Reform: A Key @GOP 2016 Issue
I left Active Duty, inter alia, because I was disgusted by seeing uniformed officers held to a higher standard of conduct than their Commander-in-Chief, Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriend.

Kurds Get Closer to a State of Their Own
With Cuba and North Korea dominating the headlines, Americans may have missed the good news from a corner of the world that has provided very little: Iraq. Kurdish peshmerga fighters have inflicted a series of defeats on Islamic State forces, freeing a broad swath of northern Iraq from the jihadists’ control.

National

The Collapse of the Democratic Party In South Dakota: What Happened?
2014 was a terrible year for the Democrats nationally, but in South Dakota it was a catastrophe: Democrats hold only 20 out of 105 seats in the state’s legislature, all 13 officers and representatives elected statewide are Republicans, and in the race for Governor, the Democrats suffered the worst margin of defeat in the state’s history. This marked the nadir for a party that as recently as 1978 was riding high, with more registered voters than the GOP.

They’re Coming for Mike Lee
It is extremely notable that Manu Raju of the Politico has written that the establishment intends to destroy Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). Raju serves as the court stenographer for the Senate GOP leadership. His pieces are routinely littered with the conventional wisdom and talking points of the Senate GOP leadership. He has more than once anticipated Senate GOP leadership strategy based on their conversations with him.

De Blasio Attacks NYPD Officers That Turned Their Backs on Him
Democratic New York City mayor Bill de Blasio launched a disgusting attack on the New York Police Department officers that symbolically turned their backs on him before a press conference to address the shooting deaths of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.

What is ‘Manspreading’ and Why are People Angry about It?
About three days after death, corpses really start to stink. After rigor and livor mortis, the body’s cells start to rupture–what’s commonly known as putrefaction. This horrific interstitial stage of decomposition is where the unhappy modern feminist movement currently finds itself: emitting noxious odours, but well on the way to decay and skeletonisation, long past the point where CPR would have any effect on the brain.

After NYC Deaths, a Surge of Support for Police
Rocker Jon Bon Jovi donned a New York Police Department T-shirt on stage. Well-wishers delivered home-baked cookies by the hundreds to police in Cincinnati. In Mooresville, North Carolina, police and sheriff’s officers were treated by residents to a chili dinner.

Salon: Have a rapey Christmas, you religious dinosaurs
Ah, Christmas — the season for joy, tolerance, and goodwill amongst all. Usually in these days, media outlets queue up the glurge — the sappy stories, the tearjerker videos, and the essays about finding meaning in a season defined by religion and its observance. Everyone likes to tap into the happy memories and high ideals of the Christmas season.

‘De Blasio Our Backs Have Turned To You’ banner flown over NYC
Rank and file New York City police officers dramatically escalated their feud with Mayor Bill De Blasio Friday. A group of them reportedly hired a plane to fly over the city while carrying a banner that said: “De Blasio Our Backs Have Turned To You.”

When Child Protective Services becomes Child Abductive Services
It’s generally agreed that playing outside is good for kids. Fresh air, sunlight, exercise, social interaction are all vital for proper childhood development. However, a growing herd of nanny-statists within the government, specifically state Child Protective Services agencies, have decided that playing outside without direct supervision is so dangerous that it would be better if children weren’t raised by their own parents. They risk turning our children into a generation of physically stunted, psychologically addled wards of the state. But for their own good!

The Demise of Due Process on Campus
Universities’ mishandling of sexual assault allegations has been making the news — but not in the way feminist activists and progressive politicians had hoped. Swarthmore College settled a case brought in federal court in Pennsylvania by an undergraduate wrongly expelled by means of a severely defective disciplinary process. A federal court in New York rejected Colgate University’s motion to dismiss on the pleadings former student Abrar Faiaz’s claim that in the rush to expel him for pushing two women, the university falsely imprisoned him, and Colgate has not challenged his federal and state discrimination claims.

Are You Certain You Don’t Want to Consider Homeschooling Your Kids?
If you think it’s a good idea to send your children to public schools, you probably aren’t really paying attention to what’s happening in public schools and who is in charge of public schools. Saturday, I searched Google News for the words “teacher + arrest” and — in addition to the usual stories about teachers raping and molesting their students — found an interesting variety of criminal mayhem

Sprinkles to Be Banned by FDA
Not even Stalin’s tyranny would have banned the sprinkles kids like on ice cream (assuming you could find any sprinkles or any ice cream in a communist country). But Obama’s tyranny would. Sprinkles, you see, contain politically incorrect trans fats

Anti-Police Protesters Plan to Disrupt New Year’s Eve Celebrations
Anti-police protesters are planning to disrupt New Year’s Eve celebrations at major metropolitan sites. The website Stop Mass Incarceration calls upon activists to not allow New Years Eve 2015 “to go down because business as usual in Amerikkka includes wanton police murder of Black people.”

Economy & Taxes

De Blasio Attacks NYPD Officers That Turned Their Backs on Him
Democratic New York City mayor Bill de Blasio launched a disgusting attack on the New York Police Department officers that symbolically turned their backs on him before a press conference to address the shooting deaths of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.

Belarus In Full-Blown Hyperinflation Panic: Blocks News, Online Stores; Bans All FX Trading For 2 Years
“We have to do something with these Belarussian rubles,” exclaims one Belarussian as she shops to turn worthless rubles (BYR) into physical assets. As AFP reports, The Belarussian currency was dragged down by the slide of the Russian ruble last week, leading authorities to impose draconian measures, forbid price increases even for imported goods, and warn people against panic. Now, however, in an effort to stem the flood of hyperinflating domestic prices, authorities have blocked online stores and news websites to stop the run on banks and shops as people scramble to secure their savings. One of the blocked news websites noted, it “looks like the authorities want to turn light panic over the fall of the Belarussian ruble into a real one,” calling the blockages “December insanity.”

Merry Christmas: Here’s 1,200 New Regulations from the Obama Admin
Worse than a stocking full of coal, the Obama Administration has gifted the country with more than 1,200 new regulations right before Christmas. According to the nanny-state death star, regulations.gov, more than 1,200 new regulations have come out in the last 15 days alone.

Poll: Labour Facing Wipe-out in Scotland
The Labour party faces being all but wiped out in Scotland at next year’s General Election, a new poll suggests. The Survation poll for the Daily Record puts the party – traditionally dominant north of the border – on just 24 percent, down from 42 percent in 2010. If the swing were uniform across the country, it would leave the party with just four MPs in Scotland, down from 41.

Sweden Cancels an Election
Following the rejection of the new (minority) ‘Red-Green’ government’s budget earlier this month, Sweden was due to hold a fresh election early next year.

‘Barbaric’ Ethnic Massacre in Assam Province Shocks Indians
Indians have expressed shock over the brutality of the barbaric massacre that took place on Tuesday in Assam province, in India’s far northeast. A group of 80 members of the ethnic Bodo tribe massacred 76 men, women and children and caused hundreds in Adivasis villages to flee as their homes were being burned and destroyed. Both groups are a mix of Hindus and Christians, with some Muslims.

Churchill’s Sister-In-Law Urged Him Not To Convert to Islam
One of the nation’s best loved countrymen, Winston Churchill is best remembered for his role in overcoming the Nazi threat, and later for denouncing the Soviet regime’s Iron Curtain. But few are aware of his fascination with the orient and his strong admiration for Islam, which even led him to adopting Arab attire in private. Now a newly uncovered letter sent to Churchill by his future sister-in-law has revealed that, such was his obsession, she was moved to urge him not to convert to Islam.

Opinion

97 Percent of All Liberal Claims Are Wrong
And I’m not so sure about the other 3 percent, either. It is amazing to behold how liberals will grab hold of the flimsiest statistic so long as it bolsters The Narrative, no matter how easily and convincingly the figure is debunked. These days, the favorite liberal numbers are 1 in 5, 97 percent, and 77 percent.

Confessions Of A Reluctant Culture Warrior
I’ve recently been working on a review of the top stories of 2014, which gives me a chance to look back at everything I’ve written and get a sense of what was really important this year, and also of how good a job I did of responding to those big stories.

Confessions Of A Reluctant Culture Warrior: Edmund Burke, Barack Obama, and cop-killing
To Scott’s lists of recommended books for the Christmas season, I would like to add Yuval Levin’s The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left. Levin, probably my favorite current analyst of politics and policy, describes the philosophical clash between Burke and Paine and explains how it forms the root of the current political divide in America.

Yes, It Does Have Something To Do With Islam
…One is free to argue that the gunman’s and the Islamic State’s view of Islam is “not true Islam.” But it is at best disingenuous, at best, so say that forces that declare themselves an Islamic State, who want to impose their view of proper Islamic Law, and openly declare that they are fighting for Islam, while waving a flag with the statement of Islamic faith AND the Insignia of the founder of Islam, somehow has nothing to do with Islam…

Feminist Amateur Hour
If you ever get bored with professional feminist crazies like Jessica Valenti (“Damn these gendered Christmas chores!”) and Amanda Marcotte (“Damn that Baby Jesus!”), you should check out the craziness churned up by the amateurs at Everyday Feminism. You can tell they’re amateurs not necessarily because their arguments are less coherent or articulate than Marcotte’s and Valenti’s — that would be difficult to achieve — but because on the page where Everyday Feminism solicits contributions they don’t say anything about paying for contributions.

A 21st-Century Feminist Family
Elizabeth Fierro describes her teenage life in Austin, Texas: I used to be self-conscious about the fact that I have three moms. I worried no one would understand my experience of having divorced biological parents, both recently remarried to beautiful women. . . .

Merry Christmas, Haters
People obsessed with race keep pointing out white cop, black suspect, because fomenting racial hatred is all that matters to them. There is video of this incident, however, and police say it appears the suspects may have been attempting to stage an ambush: When the officer responded to a reported theft at the Mobil gas station/convenience store, he encountered two suspects, one of whom drew a 9mm pistol.

Will 2016 resemble 1968 for Democrats?
I’ve been dismissive of Jim Webb’s prospects for winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But Jacob Heilbrunn’s column on Webb, and Steve’s commentary on that column, made me take another look.

Fundamental Concepts – On Racism
Here’s something that has been bouncing around the brain box lately. Three things actually, all of which have to do with race and racism. Lets take them one at a time.

Arthur Christopher Schaper: I predict Scott Walker will defeat Elizabeth Warren
No one can begrudge his disappointment. Obama has damaged his party’s brand because of his failed domestic programs (stimulus, Obamacare) and interventionist foreign policy, (Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria). Obama has also alienated key supporters, including African-Americans, through his support for gay marriage and opposition to school choice, and liberal Hispanic interests, with his repeated promises to enact sweeping amnesty, yet refusing to follow through.

Worse Than Dinkins
The tenure of David Dinkins as mayor of New York City is universally remembered as the absolute nadir of that city’s history, but Bill de Blasio is making a strong claim to the title Worst Mayor Ever

Death Wish VI: On the Turning Away
As New York reverts back to the era of Bronson’s Paul Kersey and DeNiro’s Travis Bickle, we’re all about to find out — and not just Manhattan’s SoHo bobo class, but its citizens who lead far less cossetted lives. As Heather Mac Donald noted this past week, “thousands of black men are alive today who would have been killed years ago had data-driven policing not brought down the homicide levels of the early 1990s.”